See, if Yoshida were a bit more like her evil self from the Shana-tan specials, she would have tried to get Shana knocked up and thusly ruined for marriage. That’s one way to answer Shana’s question.

Of course, there’s always the demonstration route.

Wouldn’t it have been funny if Shana had asked Wilhelmina how babies are made before she told her that she was going to confess to Yuji? I wonder what Wilhelmina’s response would have been?

(Funniest possible response? “Why, I don’t know either.”)

When Yuji and his dad were on the bridge, I was trying to guess what he wanted to tell Yuji. I was leaning towards, “I’m not really your father,” but once he told Yuji that he wanted to work the “3” in the name, I knew it was a double bomb that Yuji was the second child. Though wasn’t his dad just back like four or five episodes ago? He and Chigusa must have gone at it like rabbits… then again, I can’t blame him for that, can I?

Oh gawd, Sunrise Syndrome.

Poor Ike… ouch… ouch… and ouch some more.

Enjoyed the montage of Shana and Yoshida as they prep for confessing to Yuji (again). If only they put this much effort into fighting the Tomogara… “Hey look, Bal Masqué is plotting something evil… maybe we should plan a trap or countermeasure or work on spellcasting… nah, I’m going to pick out cute stationary!” I’m damn sure Sumeragi had a similar conversation in her head between shopping for new swimsuits or working on tactical formations for the Meisters.

When I saw the scene of an utterly overmatched Yuji trying to decide on Shana or Yoshida, I was thinking, “Well, in real life he’ll have to make a choice or turn Mormon. In anime, Hecate will bail him out.” 20 seconds later? Banzai!

Myssa Rei: It’s funny, since Yuuji has always been perceptive, but only with regards to the world that Flame Hazes and Tomogara; with relationships, he’s completely clueless.

I think 99% of men are like this. I know a lot of really bright programmers and lawyers, but they’re absolutely clueless when it comes to women. But I think as an outsider looking in, it’s easier to evaluate than someone in a messed-up relationship. I’m convinced that being in love lowers a man’s IQ by at least 20 points. Some… significantly more… (see -cakes, Mako.)

Haesslich: Yes, they’re worse – at least Keiichi and Belldandy have admitted their love, and are secure in it… even if they choose not to take it a few more steps beyond where they have; they made that choice consciously. Yuuji, on the other hand, has about as much perceptiveness as one of Keiichi’s wrenches, and is almost as blind AND dumb.

You’re right Haess. Belldandy and Keiichi at least admitted to each other fairly early on (I even kept count on my old website) whereas Shana and Yuji… if it takes 200 pages a book at 16 books… well… that’s 3,200 pages. Keep in mind that War and Peace is only about half that. 3,200 pages to kinda tell a story… Shana‘s the direct opposite of something like Children of Hurin that takes like 200 pages to tell a story that needed significantly more.

Lestaki : Yuji working out Sabrac so easily is kinda dubious, though. His precedecessor, Johann the genius, Wilhemina- who’s no slacker in terms of brains- and Pheles- who admittedly probably is- were chased by this guy for however long without working him out. Am I really supposed to believe Yuji the nub can come to a revelation that somehow eluded them?

I’m willing to believe it because Yuji isn’t really in love with Shana or Yoshida, which means he has full use of his brain. Johan, because of how love-love he was with Pheles, I’d say was down at least 30 IQ points. As for Wilhelmina and Pheles… well… keep in mind there’s a really, really good chance Wilhelmina doesn’t know how babies are made either.

Jason: Actually there’s a fan-joke running around that the reason that Yuuji’s dad wasn’t around a lot was because he was really Sabrac (can’t blame them, given how messed up Kantarou’s hair was… plus Sabrac’s awesome first impression… now where was that screenie comparison). Though, that really doesn’t explain how semi-useless Yuuji was in the first season now, does it? ;)

As for the novel lengths, well, each of the Shana books are anywhere from 60 to 130 pages in length, and they’re not all text (as light novels, they have illustrations too). Plus, the some books didn’t focus on the main ‘plot’ at all, and dealt with stuff you’d expect from Fumoffu or the Haruhi side-stories (Day of Saggitarius, Mysterique Sign), and some actually focused on flashbacks (book 15 is an example). That aside, it’s STILL amazing how Shana and Yuuji have danced around the love-love issue.

Tsk, work must have worn me out more than expected, I forgot to point out that Hecate popping up where Yuuji was (at the crossroads of destiny, as it were) seemed oddly appropriate, since the Greek Goddess Hecate was also the Goddess of Crossroads. Doom or Safety, Loli or Busty? Yuuji just doesn’t have any luck, does he?

… i watched this episode and 10 minutes in I knew you were going to blog it

>Poor Ike… ouch… ouch… and ouch some more.
She already made up her mind before she met him =_=; poor Ike D= I feel for the side character with only one (crappy) episode devoted to him and his not so great planning skills ~_~;

You know as soon as I watched that “how do I make babies?” scene (and after I had a major LOL session) I knew you would have a field day with this, and kept checking to see if you make a post on this. My intuition was RIGHT!!

But I must say, J.C. STAFF, you blew it!!!!! They have just passed on probably the closest door to a Yuji x Shana x Yoshida ending. I’m with you on the “Demonstration” route, which would have unraveled possible emotions between the two, and still throw in their affection for Yuji. I sense a formula of WIN! You know I want to see a special feature that comes out with the DVD on “How Yoshida taught Shana to make babies (Uncensored)”, I can already tell you, SOLD!!

Hm, seeing Hecate put up the barrier once again reminded me. Have they, in the novels, ever tried to even marginally explain their nature? As they are, they’re paradoxal. Time stops inside yet flows outside, leading to observable disparity by those caught inside – especially if they are stuck for, say half a day. And what do mortals who cannot observe the barrier see when they look from outside in? Not to mention digital equipment, like surveillance cameras that get frozen in time.

And what did Yuji think about his father’s story? After all the original Yuji is dead too, him being the torch put in as a temporary (without the reiji maigo – oops he just lost it) replacement.

Hecate popping in and grabbing the reiji maigo was rather… anticlimatic. I did wonder a bit why she didn’t take it, say back in episode one. I realize their plan didn’t require it until now, but if they are counting on not being able to stop the flame hazes that come to get it back, shouldn’t it be wiser to just close up shop and stop pretending to be an evil overlord?

Northernshadows: The Barrier that Hecate set up isn’t a jizaihou at all, but something else entirely. I can’t remember the term, but it’s basically a Flame Haze deterrent — it keeps the Flame Hazes from getting to whatever it is inside the barrier.

As for the paradoxical nature of the Jizaihou themselves, it’s kind if like what you might expect from a Void Incarnate (an Epic-Level rogue prestige class) — people unconsciously avoid/ignore the area where the jizaihou is set up, and pass the experience off as dejavu. The effect on electronic methods of observation is never really explained, but one would assume that some sort of distortion happens (that can also be conveniently passed off as system failure).

Myssa: I think Yuuji was almost praying for something like that to show up, the way things were going. First they were ganging up on him over the Konoe thing… and now they’re ganging up on him to make him admit he likes one of them… and in reality he doesn’t seem to feel that way about anything yet, being severely underdeveloped emotionally and mentally.

And now Hecate sucks the Reigo Maji out of him… and shows she can pull almost anything out– why are you all looking at me like that? She DID.

Perhaps there is amounts of malleability to reality in Shanaverse. We already know it has self-correcting mechanisms, for example when a torch finally burns out. People who are familiar with White Wolf’s Mage RPG should understand what I’m trying to get at. Extreme amounts of self-correction, to the point of retrofixing mortals into making different choices in the past, could neatly explain why nobody is raising a fuss about various anomalies that are popping up.

Completely unrelated to Shana (well, 99% anyway) but I felt obligated to post it (despite the fact that there’d be a different voice cast for the eventual US release anyway): Persona 4 has been announced and will be out in Japan in July, trailer here. The voice cast includes Yui Horie, Showtaro Morikubo, Maeda Ai, Paku Romi, Oohara Sayaka, Kugimiya Rie, Kanda Akemi, and Koshimizu Ami.

>> Persona 4
Nice. I can’t understand what they are saying there, but by the looks of it P4 retains a lot from P3. Which is good, since I wrote P3 a glowing review due to its features. It looks like they’ve dropped the use of the evoker… which is good, since instead of making anything out of it, P3 was content just to use it as a gimmick.